A harvester is an agricultural machine used to harvest and process crops. For instance, a combine harvester may be used to harvest grain crops, such as wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn, soybeans, and flax or linseed. In general, the objective is to complete several processes, which traditionally were distinct, in one pass of the machine over a particular part of the field. In this regard, most harvesters are equipped with a detachable harvesting implement, such as a header, which cuts and collects the crop from the field. The harvester also includes a crop processing system, which performs various processing operations (e.g., threshing, separating, etc.) on the harvested crop received from the harvesting implement. Furthermore, the harvester includes a crop tank, which receives and stores the harvested crop after processing.
In certain instances, the stored harvested crop is unloaded from the harvester into a nearby crop cart. More specifically, the harvester may include a crop discharge system, which conveys the harvested crop from the crop tank to a discharge location on the harvester. Once at the discharge location, the harvested crop is deposited into the crop cart. The crop discharge system may unload the harvested crop at a rate greater than (e.g., at least double) the rate at which harvested crop enters the crop tank. In this respect, to achieve such high unload rates, the crop discharge system must contain a small volume of the harvested crop conveyed at a high velocity or a large volume of the harvested crop conveyed at a low velocity.
When the crop cart is full, an operator of the harvester must halt unloading of the harvested crop to prevent the harvested crop from spilling out of the crop cart. However, after unloading of the crop is halted, a portion of the harvested crop is still present within the crop discharge system of the harvester. If the harvested crop present in the crop discharge system is not discharged before shut down, the harvester will have difficulty resuming the unloading process. More specifically, when a small volume of the harvested crop is unloaded at a high velocity, the harvester will have difficulty accelerating the stationary harvested crop present in the crop discharge system to the desired velocity. Similarly, when a large volume of the harvested crop is unloaded at a low velocity, the harvester will have difficulty generating sufficient torque to accelerate the large volume of stationary harvested crop present in the crop discharge system. As such, all harvested crop present within the crop discharge system must be discharged therefrom before the crop discharge system may be shut down. In this regard, the harvested crop present within the crop discharge system will be discharged onto the ground and wasted if the operator does not account for the harvested crop present within the crop discharge system before halting unloading.
Accordingly, an improved method and system for unloading a desired quantity of harvested crop from an agricultural harvester would be welcomed in the technology.